Government Response
Lord Sidmouth in a letter to Lord Liverpool
in 1819
The existing means of stopping the progress, not merely insurrection but rebellion, have long since proved to be utterly insufficient, but hitherto my colleagues have remained unconvinced of the imperious and urgent necessity of advising the adoption of the only measure, which would of itself, animate the loyal and awe the disaffected, and by which alone effectual means can be provided to meet and overcome a danger greater, as I am firmly and deliberately convinced, than any to which the country has been exposed since the accession of the present Royal Family to the throne.
Response?
Overreaction
Sensible
At this point Britain only had 65,000 men in the Army which was not enough to stop an armed revolution